1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oscillator capable of accumulating and storing the running time of an electronic apparatus and to an electronic apparatus using the oscillator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, various electronic apparatuses such as a personal computer, copier, etc., have widely utilized electronic parts or mechanical parts such as an oscillator, a display including a liquid crystal display (LCD), a memory, a central processing unit (CPU), etc. In general, these electronic apparatuses have their own expiration dates. When the expiration dates are passed, the electronic apparatuses are discarded without exception. However, there are problems that it is difficult to acquire landfill space and the discarded apparatuses may influence the earth's environment. For this reason, it is necessary to determine whether or not the used parts are to be recycled and to sort the used parts in accordance with characteristics of the electronic apparatuses or the used parts. Therefore, relatively inexpensive parts are discarded and expensive products such as CPUs are recycled.
In addition, since even electronic apparatuses of the same type have different running times depending on their usage frequencies, the daily actual running time of the electronic apparatuses becomes one item to be managed. In some cases, an electronic apparatus is powered on/off in accordance with the working time in one day. In other cases, the electronic apparatus may be constantly driven without being powered off. Therefore, the running times of these cases are different depending on their usage. In particular, in the electronic apparatus powered on/off in accordance with the working time in one day, it is necessary to accurately count the running time and determine whether or not it is to be recycled based on its accumulated running time.
In an electronic apparatus whose accumulated running time must be managed, a construction shown in FIG. 10 is generally employed in order to count the running time. In FIG. 10, the electronic apparatus comprises a CPU 45, oscillators 1, 2, a timer circuit 44, memory devices such as a RAM 47, and a ROM 48, a backup power source (not shown), etc. The running time is accumulated in the timer circuit 44 based on a reference clock signal having a frequency of 32 kHz output from the oscillator 2, and the result is to be written in the RAM 47 through the CPU bus 49. For example, it is considered that the running time of a liquid crystal display used as a display 42 of a personal computer is accumulated and accurately managed.
In addition, as a representative personal apparatus, there is a cellular phone or a portable notebook personal computer. In these apparatuses, during their unused periods, their requisite functions such as a counting operation is always performed by means of a backup power source. In addition, while its user is moving, the portable electronic apparatus can be used but its battery needs to be periodically charged. Since it is not easy for a user to accurately check the usage times or running time, there is a need for the user to accurately check the actual status of the running time of these apparatuses.
As a conventional example, an arrangement where counter means with a backup battery is provided to count the running time of peripheral devices is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. 5-79649 (see Section 0011 and FIG. 1). As another conventional example, an arrangement where a current detector and a time measurement device are accommodated in one case is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. 6-25960 (see Section 0008 and FIG. 2).
A conventional oscillator or an electronic apparatus using the oscillator having the aforementioned construction has the following problems.
Since the conventional oscillator does not have a function of counting and retaining the running time of the electronic apparatus at a power-off time, individual function blocks for retaining and recording the running time shown in FIG. 10 need to be provided in the individual apparatus to store the running time count data in a memory. However, even though all the needed running time count data is stored in a memory, there is a problem in that the currently counted running time count data is lost at a power-off time and cannot be stored.
In addition, in order to prevent the loss of data, it is necessary to prepare a dedicated circuit for retaining data in combination with an external storage device such as a hard disk drive and an external backup power source, etc. In addition, since the individual function is not integrated but separately provided in each apparatus, there is a problem in that the size tends to be large in mounting and the cost tends to increase.
In addition, in a cellular phone or a portable notebook personal computer, since there is no function of counting the running time, accumulating running status, and displaying running status, there is a problem in that it is impossible for a user to check the running status of the apparatus.
In order to solve these problems, the present invention provides an oscillator capable of counting the running time, storing the count result, and preventing running time count data from being erased at a power-off time. In addition, the present invention also provides a compact low cost oscillator for counting the running time, storing the count result, and preventing running time count data from being erased at a power-off time.
In addition, the present invention also provides an electronic apparatus in which the running time of its peripheral devices or its used parts can be simply retained and managed and which can be conveniently used by using an oscillator for counting the running time, storing the count result, and preventing running time count data from being erased at a power-off time.